Do not go over the branches a second time.

In Deuteronomy 24:20, the Lord commands, "When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time." This is so that the widows, the orphans, and the alien could take whatever remains on the tree. Likewise, He commands, "When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it." (v19). This is so that the poor may pick up the sheaf and mitigate their hunger. Some even left a sheaf or two behind intentionally, so that someone else may get them -- as Boaz did for Ruth (Ruth 2:15,16). The Lord has compassion on the afflicted (Isaiah 49:13) and demands that we do the same.

The mercy and generosity that the Lord demands of us is not really of our own at all. Suppose I see a poor man who needs ten dollars to buy himself and his child a lunch. Instead of reaching into my own pocket, I take ten dollars from someone else and give the money to the poor man. Would I be called merciful or generous? Scarcely. I might rather be called a thief or a scoundrel or some such name.

Yet, that is in a way the level of generosity that the Lord demands of us. Perhaps because He knows how stingy we are with things that we consider our own, He tells us to be generous with things that are not actually our own, but His. Recall the parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16:1-15. The master hears of an accusation that his manager has been wasting away his (the master's) possessions. Fearing that he would lose his job, the manager then does favor to those who have borrowed from the master by reducing how much they owe. Upon hearing this, the master actually commends the manager for his shrewdness. The manager is considered to have acted in a trustworthy manner with "someone else's property", with "worldly wealth", and with "very little."

The first step of our generosity is that none of what we call as our own is really our own. All that we have is actually someone else's property -- it is God's. All that we have in this world -- our "worldly wealth," which is actually "very little" in value compared to what we will have in heaven, actually belongs to someone else -- the Lord. Using what is the Lord's, the Lord wants us to be generous and merciful towards the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the alien. Extending mercy to them is being a good steward of what the Lord entrusted to us to use.

And, when we demonstrate that we can be good stewards of someone else's property, of worldly wealth, of what is very little, the Lord promises us that we will then be entrusted with our own "true riches" in heaven. To give to the poor is to store up treasures in heaven (Matthew 19:21). The better we manage "someone else's property" and be generous with it on earth, the more treasure we will have in heaven. This is not possible with the math of this world, but is eminently true with the generosity of our Father in Heaven.

Lastly, generosity is not a state of mind or heart. It is not a feeling. It is defined by deeds and actions. James 2:16 says, "If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?" Indeed! We need to open our eyes and reach out to our poor brethren in North Korea, victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti, ... To the poor and needy that the Lord shows to us, we need to extend our generosity and mercy by actually giving and sharing.